SHAH ALAM: Selangor has up to Oct 14 this year recorded 87 malaria cases said chairman of the state permanent committee on Health, Welfare, Women and Family Development, Dr Daroyah Alwi.
She said malaria control activities that were under the Health Ministry and the Selangor State Health Department (JKNS) aim to reduce the mortality and morbidity of the disease, as well reduce the occurrence of repeat cases in areas which have been cleared of the disease.
To reduce the number of deaths from malaria, she said, JKNS had instructed all hospitals in Selangor to monitor the history of movement of patients who had gone to the affected locations within a month.
“The monitoring is also for people at risk of contracting the disease, such as loggers, Orang Asli, hunters, tourists or residents living near the forests as well as anyone else who may have come in direct contact with the macaque monkey,” she said at the Selangor State Assembly sitting here today.
Daroyah was replying to a question from Dr Halimah Ali (PAS-Selat Kelang) on the status of the disease and what action has been taken by the state government to ensure foreign visitors did not bring in the disease.
She added that all private medical practitioners had been instructed to increase the ‘index of suspicion’ of the disease and conduct direct microscopic investigations from the ‘Blood Film for Malaria Parasite’ (BFMP) on risk groups.
Daroyah said the risk groups were foreigners from malaria-prone regions or countries such as Africa, Pakistan, Myanmar, India, Indonesia, Nepal and others.
“Others are the Orang Asli and Malaysians with a history of visiting malaria-prone areas either within the country or overseas,” she said.
Daroyah added that the local authorities had distributed pamphlets in various languages to foreigners to help them understand the situation.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the state committee on Islamic Religion, Malay Customs and Heritage, Rural and Traditional Villages, Datuk Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi said as of August this year, 1,110 marriages involving girls aged between 16 and 20, had been recorded in Selangor.
He said according to the statistics, there were 1,487 marriages involving this group last year, while 1,615 was recorded in 2015.
Ahmad Yunus also said as of August, 38 marriages involving girls under the age of 16 was recorded, 22 last year and 29 in 2015.
“According to Section 8 of the Selangor Islamic Family law Enactment 2003, a girl who is less than 16 years of age will have to apply to the Syariah Court for permission to be married,” he said, in reply to a question from Lau Weng San (DAP-Kampung Tunku) on the number of marriages in the state involving this group.
He said according to the records, in the last five years, there were 357 applications for marriages involving under-aged people, with 321 approved.– BERNAMA